Resurrection
by flaxendog
Summary: Tensions rising, the group dynamic rests on Rick's shoulders. At the same time, Michonne steadily becomes accustomed to living in a group, as she begins to realize that she needs these people, will they accept her? All this, zombies and the Governor.
1. Chapter 1

_Michonne, you are not safe._

Her body tensed, and the grip on her katana tightened. She listened to the shuffling footsteps, there was a gentle tapping on her shoulder, and she suddenly whipped around ready to attack.

Carl backed himself against the cell wall, heart racing, with his gun aimed at the center of Michonne's chest. "You sleep with that thing?" he slowly lowered his gun, he watched as Michonne's vicious expression awfully transformed into a sheepish smile, "It's not a bad habit to have."

"Probably" Carl shrugged. Light bounced off of the blade and traced erratic patterns on the cell floor, Carl, nervously followed the patterns with his eyes.

Michonne stood, and slowly put her sword back in its sheath. With the light gone, Carl's eyes snapped up to meet Michonne's "Are you planning on staying here?"

The question hung in the air, Carl studied Michonne's face for a sign, some sort of confirmation, but her expression never changed, she remained guarded, so he pushed forward, "You're good with that," pointing at her weapon "and it's not easy, with Judith. She needs someone like you around." He looked up into her face again, this time he saw the change he was looking for, her eyes had softened, and her lips seemed to give in a little.

Michonne put her hand on Carl's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze "I can't promise you anything."

Michonne didn't like speaking, but the few times she did, she always made sure she was telling the truth. She left the cell abruptly, leaving Carl behind.

_Michonne, you are not safe. _

She concentrated on her echoing footsteps, the voice kept whispering

_...not..safe_

His voice hissed in her ears, she actually turned her head expecting to see his face looking down at her, but of course her eyes simply met the concrete of the prison wall. Sometimes, it felt so real. She could feel his breath on her ear, often, she caught his sent in the air, or felt the brush of his hands on her shoulders, Michonne shivered, and she ran her fingers over her cheeks and lips. Her hands steadily dropped from her face, and she marched forward just as she'd been doing since it all ended.

As she came down to the common prison hall, she realised the whole room had gotten quiet, Rick looked at her directly, while the rest of the group seemed to find it difficult to make eye contact.

"So have you come to a decision about me?" Her voice sounded alien, low and woody, her eyes never left Rick's.

"That's not exactly what we were discussing; whether or not you are in the group, I still believe we have common interests."

"The Governor"

"Exactly"


	2. Chapter 2

_Thank you everyone for the support, I am steadily building up to the romance, stay with me, I want the drama, action, and romance that I love in TWD to be present in this fanfic. Also, I will surely try my darndest to update asap, and keep the story moving forward. I'm working with both the show and the comic for plot materials (uptodate on the show, but got up to issue 56 in the comic) I've found all the reviews so far to be sweet and helpful, thank you again! Take care everyone!_

"We have to ready for an attack no matter what"

Rick didn't let his voice betray his thoughts; instead he let himself talk as though he was addressing a group of well trained soldiers rather than what seemed to be zombie leftovers. Merle and Hershel almost looked comedic sitting next to one another; almost everyone was sporting a new bandage of some sort.

Rick let the weight of his words reverberate in the empty cell block; he looked at each one of the prison-inhabitants. Some seemed to express apprehension, but thankfully most supplied reassurance and support. Glenn and Daryl nodded silently asking him to continue.

"It's either that, or let him fuck us all over, especially me, he'd fuck me twice, Michonne'd probably get it thrice." Merle croaked from the stairs, his eyes were wild, Rick wasn't sure how he'd be able to control him, he quickly looked at Michonne to see if she'd react, but she stayed still, her gaze was somewhere off in the distance, as though the words had never reached her ears.

"What we need to do is distract him, get him to go where we want, and then hit him where it hurts. We gotta think, get ahead of this guy, Andrea thinks she can reason with him but going off of what Merle, Michonne, Glenn and Maggie have told me this man is not looking for a reasonable offer, he's looking to dominate."

"He'll be looking out for our weaknesses, you saw from what he did the other day, he was trying to show us how easy it would be to take away what we have. He wants us to feel unstable-

Suddenly, Michonne stepped into the center of the room, her voice was low and she kept her head down and her eyes to the ground.

"It's not only that, he likes this world, he uses it to his advantage, that's what he was showing us, that this is already his domain, walkers are just another weapon to him."

The clarity of Michonne's words rang out to the group. Rick looked at the woman in front of him; she carried herself like a warrior, her long arms always ready for action, and her expression was it vacant or stern? He wondered whether his own expression wore the same worn quality, he self-consciously rubbed his face to confirm.

"He's got people, enough people to take us out easily, what did Andrea say, 70 or so?"

"Why don't we just run? Let's give him the prison; it's not worth putting all our lives at risk... we all can't fend for ourselves in this world." Carol nervously added to the discussion, as she gestured towards Beth and Judith, her eyes pleaded with the rest of the group, "I can't lose anymore of you"

Merle let out a low cackle, "I know you could all lose me, I know you fuckers could, you've done it before." The blade attached to his stub caught the glint from the light from the window, as Merle continued with his haunting chuckle.


	3. Chapter 3

Rick could see the gears turning, Glenn had that focused look he got when he had a brilliant plan

"What are you thinking Glenn?" Rick prompted.

Glenn began by giving Carol a pointed look, his jaw clenched, he scanned the room with his eyes, his movements were busy and agitated.

"We can't go out there again" Glenn addressed the whole room, "This is our home, and I am willing to die for it." He took Maggie's hand; she nodded and gave him a reassuring look.

"Doesn't sound like much of a plan" Daryl added

"I know, I know, but I was thinking how we could use the zombies as a tool, the Governor does it, why shouldn't we?"

"What are you talking about Glenn?"

"The Governor is a man about power, he thinks he has a command of this world but we need to show him and his people that he doesn't. We are a smaller group, so we can't actually overpower him, which means we have to make him believe he's been over powered-guerrilla tactics."

"I say that when he comes to the prison, make him believe that he's won it over, that he's killed some of us and that the rest of us have left. Either he will just take all of our resources and leave this place or he's going to try to move his camp to the prison in order hold it down. If we leave him no resources he's only got one option, which is to move some of his people here. I say that's our best option, it's a waiting game but, hey, the world's ended I say we have our schedules cleared."

Maggie swiftly stepped in front of Glenn, "It's a good plan, there's a cabin not far off from here that Glenn and I cleared a couple weeks back as a backup in case we get stuck on runs, thankfully we haven't had to use it. It's got a bit of food, it's reinforced, and we're likely to be safe there for a while."

It wasn't much yet, but Rick saw a change happening amongst the group, there were nodding heads, and looks of reassurance.

"It's either that or get slaughtered, cuz the Gov'ner ain't gonna be opening his doors for any of us anytime soon. I say we give it a go." Merle added with a sneer.

Rick rubbed his face, "Okay, Glenn, what's the plan of attack from there?"

"All the Governor knows about the Prison is the outside, we know there's a breach on the east wing, that's where he'll be headed for, I say we clear a path for the Governor lead him to where we want him, heavily chain up where we don't want him, added bonus we fill the rooms with impotent walkers, for you know the added dramatics of keeping him out-

"Impotent walkers?" Carol pipped in.

"You know, like the one that Andrea brought with her-"

"That'll never work." Daryl added

"It did for me" Michonne confirmed.

Glenn continued with his plan, "We keep the Governor were we want him in the prison, that's one point of attack, then there's the fact that his camp has to travel to get here, that's another weak point, and finally, we can assume that the Governor is going to leave his own camp less guarded, third point of attack. Though we don't have to kill his people, we just have to scare them, and show them that they can no longer trust their leader to protect them. Down comes the Governor."

Rick gave Glenn a bewildered look.

"What? Aside from Portal I also played a lot of Risk... you know... before the undead."

"Looks like we got ourselves a half-baked plan, let's get to work hammering it out."

Rick saw the potential, he knew there were things that needed more clarity and ore work, but he saw the genius in it, and it seemed that the rest of the group had similar opinions as well.

Steadily the group broke apart, Maggie and Glenn went off to have time to themselves, Carol, Beth and Carl left to put Judith to bed, Hershel retired, and Daryl and Merle went out to hunt, he was left alone in the quiet darkness to consider the plan.

Except he wasn't alone, Michonne sat quietly on the stairs observing Rick. She saw how he stitched himself together for the group and he let himself uncoil a little when he thought no one was watching. She watched for about 5 minutes before Rick turned around and looked directly at her.

"You there the whole time?"

"Yeah, I wanted to talk."

Rick looked tired, he took a seat beside her.

"I don't think you should worry about your position in the group, at least for now. I mean it's not like I can guarantee anything, and just cuz my son trusts you, it doesn't mean everyone else does."

Michonne smiled, and gave a sigh.

"That's better than I was hoping for, Rick. I know this world. It's a harsh one, anyone who acts too soft is either looking to die or they're looking to kill."

Michonne's words suddenly drew Rick out of reality for a moment, for a split second he could see himself through the eyes of the Rick that came before the zombies, what he saw was a hardened and stern man, a grim shadow of his former self. He wondered if the light could ever return to his eyes. He turned towards Michonne and wondered the same thing.

"Was there any tenderness in you before?" The words came out before Rick had meant them to. Michonne looked taken aback; her eyes told him that she'd been hurt.

"It's not so far down beneath the surface. It's there, Rick, I'm hiding it for a rainy day."

"I'm sorry, it's just I can't even recognize it in myself anymore. I-I can't hold my child; I don't think I love her. I don't love Judith." Rick's face remained stern; his expression didn't betray the pain in his words.

Michonne's heart had been numb, she hadn't felt the deaths of her children, she couldn't understand that her boyfriend was dead, but suddenly sitting next to Rick, the pain she'd been putting off for more than a year rushed in and began to take hold of her. She put her head on Rick's shoulder and draped her arm over his back, she felt him relax a little. Tears had been running down her cheeks for a while, she lifted her head took look up at Rick, his eyes, also filled with tears spoke of horror and grief. They looked at each other, Michonne cupped Rick's face with her hands, she brought her lips close to his ear, his breathing seemed to quicken as she moved closer to him.

"Neither of us should be alone tonight" she whispered.

_Sorry to end right before ze sexy part but I want to take my time writing it, I'd like to be able to explore the different facets of their relationship, beginning with reliance, but hopefully they'll be able to move to a more playful and mutually beneficial relationship! We'll see. _


	4. Chapter 4

_All right people, warning, this scene between Rick and Michonne is not romantic. It is dark and exposes the shallow quality of their relationship, but only because this is how I see them initially engaging with one another. I feel that romance is something that needs to develop over time, and requires a heightened level of interaction, so for those of you who expect self-satisfying smut, I apologize; also I don't think I'd be good at that. My goal is really to get into characters. I hope that I achieve that, and please do tell me how you think I am doing because I do read and appreciate all commentary!_

Rick couldn't keep his eyes on Michonne; instead they flitted between shadows bouncing from side to side. He felt his mind retreat; he couldn't return her side long glances. Rick's heart was numb, and yet he witnessed his body being led by Michonne to her cell.

A fierce chill had come over him, the kind that emerged whenever he had to kill walkers, a sort of permafrost that had steadily grown around his soul. Rick thought it was this coldness that made it difficult to look at himself in the mirror.

Something had changed, and he couldn't recognize himself, the memories of Lori seemed to move closer and further away in time. At times when he looked at Lori's face would replace that of Michonne's until Rick convinced himself that Michonne, having conversed with the dead, was channeling his dead wife.

"I forgive you" Rick whispered into the darkness, the lights had been removed, he was only aware of the physical sensations occurring all across his body. He felt warm soft lips on his neck, meanwhile hands seemed to appear out of nowhere, undressing him, while he stood motionless.

Soon, when his shirt had been removed Rick felt the lips descend, kissing his shoulder, meanwhile a hand cupped him. Rick felt himself succumb and give in, his hands found shoulders, which he gave a light squeeze. He was fully aware of the lips still following the descending motion, and he was steadily becoming aware of the slowness in the actions, he was beginning to get frustrated, and yet the frustration seemed to only fuel his arousal. He felt the hands undo his trousers. As he stood there, for a split second he felt overexposed and vulnerable, but that disappeared as soon as he felt the lips close around him. He found his hand was curled around a mound of thick dread locks; all he could register was the wetness and the movement of the lips and now a tongue. Gently licking and toying with him, Rick's breathing was quickened, his muscles strained, he was vaguely aware of the rhythmic motion of the mouth around him. Rick concentrated on what was happening to his body, the blood pumping, the shallow breathing, he needed this. He was powerless.

_I know, I know, it's very short, and I've included a lot of commentary, but I hope most of you recognize where this scene comes from! If not, it's still ok, I wanted to leave you all imagining the sex scene rather than giving you every detail. Also, I find a lot of fanfics seem to focus on PIV (penis and vagina), also orgasm seems to be a very large focus, I think you all are above that as readers. If I'm wrong please do tell me otherwise. See you later darlings! Sorry for not updating too quickly, I've been dealing with some really tough stuff, as well as Uni. _


	5. Chapter 5

Death crackled at the surface of every breath, so when Michonne exhaled, she often found herself blowing invisible smoke rings in to the darkness, a secret comfort to ward away the dead. She stretched, her body curled around and entangled with Rick's. Some light had begun to stream in to the cell, Michonne, looked down at their bodies, Rick was completely naked, but Michonne had stayed clothed the whole night, and she was more comfortable that way. She couldn't bring herself to seek the comfort in someone touching her, instead the thought left her feeling hollow. As if a hand searching her skin for warmth, would likely find what she'd hidden deep beneath her soul, and that what lay there was not worth the search in the first place.

Instead, Michonne enjoyed or at least was contented with _playing_ at life. Pretending that she existed in the same sense that everyone else did, if they could see, hear, and feel her she was there. No question, and she might have a chance at living again, until then she'd have to fake it. She had spent so long on her own, sometimes she wondered whether she was a ghost, haunting these people, maybe she was still out in the woods somewhere, huddled around a meagre campfire with her dead boyfriend still her only company.

_You're a whore, you know that, right? _

She knew he'd turn up, and the words weren't even a surprise, but Michonne was suddenly drawn out of her reverie, into a more uneasy feeling.

"What do you mean?"

_Whore. _

"That's not exactly an answer."

_Tell me, did it taste really good? Are you going back for seconds?_

"You sound jealous." Michonne let a tone of haughtiness creep into her voice; she knew he'd hate that.

_I'm sure you thought of me, while you so charitably gratified your master._

Michonne smirked; she didn't know she could inspire such hatred in the voice.

_Yes, so smug, don't worry, just wait a minute, he's going to try and kill you soon, and when he does, I will be there, with you, till the end. _

Michonne's jaw clenched, the smile faded. Something had changed in the voice; the tone of it was unfamiliar all of a sudden. Sometimes he would do that, sound concerned or caring, but it was always so malicious. But this time, the last few words had taken on a different intonation all together, as though there was a palpable sincerity behind the voice, something that scared her all the more.

_Mommy, do you still think of us? Why are you with that man? Mommy, we never stopped loving you. Why did you kill us?_

Michonne covered her ears, she saw Rick steadily awake, but as he opened his eyes his features began to bubble an tear underneath his skin were dark welts, which again bubbled and spread revealing a darker layer of skin until she found herself staring into a dark imprint of Rick, and she knew if she looked deep enough...

_Mommy, it hurts..._

Michonne screamed, angled fingers poked, and prodded her body she knew they'd come from the darkness, they'd come for her, taking pieces of her with them as they retracted into the dark spaces. Michonne screamed.

_Mommy...my skin...it burns, and it's coming off._

Pain wracked every inch of her body, her skin no longer existed, and her mangled flesh was steadily dislodging itself from her skeleton, until she stood in a pile of what was left of her, she could see her hear still pumping beneath a pile of writhing and bleeding flesh. She no longer existed, but was there to witness her own death.

* * *

Rick watched Michonne, he'd been awoken by the talking, and Michonne's voice was switching between a high pitched female and a very low presumably male voice. It had been a long time since she'd uttered actual words. It was horrible to watch, it looked violent, and painful. Michonne was crying, screaming and laughing all at once. Her face was contorted in a horrible half smile, but her eyes were screwed shut in pain. Sometimes it looked like she was being attacked, but her actions seemed constrained, as though she was trapped. He wasn't sure what to do, but when Michonne's eyes rolled into the back of her head, he jumped up to catch her just in time.

She was out cold.

Later, on Hershel had decided that Michonne had gone into a coma induced by psychosis.

The two men stood over her limp body, in the cramped cell, they looked at each other.

"Where is she?"

Rick didn't want to tell Hershel where he thought Michonne had gone, he knew that place too well.

"Hopefully, somewhere nice"

* * *

_Hello, new one coming up soon after this. More sexy stuff, and romance, and yes, plot people plot!_


End file.
